The servant of Elijah–denied his self

In the previous blogs, I mentioned that the servant of Elijah was blessed to be the first person to witness the cloud and to give that good news to the great prophet himself and to the king. I mentioned two of the reasons why he received such a honour: 1. he chose to worship the Lord and 2. he chose to follow Elijah. One more reason is he denied himself.

The entire day the Israelites had gathered near Mt. Carmel to witness the duel between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. It was during the severe drought and most probably it was a very hot day, with no respite from the blazing sun. It would have been a tiring day. And the end of the day, everyone was going back and Elijah himself told Ahab to go and eat.

The servant, when he chose to follow Elijah, chose to deny his self. He would have been very tired from the events of that day. He would have been hungry. And he saw the prophet asking the king to go and eat. Yet, he chose to follow Elijah. He was ready to deny his wants and he put the wants and needs of the prophet before him.

When we deny ourselves from the earthly pleasures, so that we could serve the Lord, our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ takes note of that. Probably you may not be able to go on fasting for 40 days like some servants of God do. But even the smallest self-denial, for the sake of our Lord Jesus, will not go unnoticed. Are you ready to deny your self, abstain from some of the pleasures of today because your family, your church, your town, or even may be your country your prayer? If you do, when the revival comes, when the showers of blessings come, you will be the first to receive it. You will be the one to proclaim the good news to the people that the Lord has forgiven their sins.